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"Trostfrauen" - "Comfort Women"

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Fukui mayor cancels trip to South Korea sister city over comfort women issue

Source:  http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/09/25/national/politics-diplomacy/fukui-mayor-cancels-trip-south-korea-sister-city-comfort-women-issue/#.V--AC3_fP1I




KYODO, SEP 24, 2016

FUKui - The mayor of Fukui Saturday canceled a trip to the South Korean sister city of Suwon over its aborted plan to erect a statue in Germany of a girl symbolizing the so-called "comfort women" who were procured for Japan's wartime military brothels.

Fukui Mayor Shinichi Higashimura was to visit Suwon from Oct. 7 to 9 but abandoned the plan due to concern over aggravating relations between the two countries, said officials from Fukui, a city located on the coast of the Sea of Japan.

The Fukui city government told its South Korean sister city that the statue plan may "affect sentiments of citizens of the two cities and exchanges between them" and expressed regret in a letter sent Saturday, according to the officials.

The Fukui city government also said it bad sent a letter to Suwon on Sept. 9 asking for an explanation of the statue plan but had not received reply by the Sept. 13 deadline.

The German city of Freiburg said earlier this week it had decided not to proceed with the plan to erect a comfort women statue after encountering strong opposition from its Japanese sister-city Matsuyama in Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku.

Freiburg bad previously accepted a proposal from its South Korean sister-city Suwon to install in a downtown park a statue to be sent there as a gift - a replica of the "comfort women" statue erected in December 2011 in front of the Japanese Embassy in central Seoul.

Japan and South Korea inked a landmark agreement in December to settle the comfort women issue. And in that agreement, South Korea pledged to make an effort to address Japan's request to remove the statue in front of the embassy.

Japan deposited 1 billion ($ 9.9 million) last month in a fund established by South Korea for the care of the former comfort women in accordance with the agreement.